Overland Track

The Overland Track is Tasmania's signature wilderness route and one of the most renowned walks in Australia. The 80km route runs south from Cradle Mountain through the Central Plateau to Lake St Clair, Australia's deepest lake. Short by thru-running standards, but the combination of alpine exposure, unpredictable weather, and genuinely technical terrain makes it a serious undertaking at speed.

The track traverses the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area — 1.4 million hectares of temperate rainforest, alpine heath, dolerite peaks, and glacially-carved lake systems. The landscape is botanically extraordinary: pencil pines over 1000 years old grow in the valleys, cushion plant moorlands cover the exposed plateaux, and the endemic flora list is longer than most mainland national parks. This is one of the last large temperate wilderness areas in the Southern Hemisphere with no introduced predators.

The route alternates between well-maintained boardwalk sections over the wetland plateaux, rocky scrambles up dolerite columns, exposed ridge traverses above the snowline, and forest singletrack in the valley sections. The boardwalk exists for a reason — without it, the famous Tasmanian mud would consume hikers wholesale. Even with it, wet conditions (the plateau receives 2500mm of rain per year) mean the off-board sections are persistently boggy.

Weather is the variable that changes everything. The Tasmanian highlands sit directly in the Roaring Forties — unobstructed westerlies that build across 20,000km of Southern Ocean. At any time of year, conditions can deteriorate from sunshine to horizontal snow in 30 minutes. The summit of Cradle Mountain (1545m) and the exposed plateau sections between huts are genuinely dangerous in high wind and limited visibility. All navigation must be possible without visibility.

A permit is mandatory during the main season (October-May, northbound). The permit costs approximately AUD75 and limits daily numbers on the track. Book well in advance for the main season. Outside the permit season (June-September), conditions are severe and the track is not maintained, but no permit is required.

Most trail runners complete the track in 3-4 days. The record is under 12 hours. Plan for 2-3 summit add-ons (Cradle Mountain, Mount Ossa, Barn Bluff) if conditions allow.